


know me better than anybody

by HearJessRoar



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Gen, Growing Up Together, Protective Alex (Julie and The Phantoms), mentions of stupid childhood crushes on each other, reggie was not treated very well in elementary school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27999015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HearJessRoar/pseuds/HearJessRoar
Summary: glimpses into every time their lives change, for the good and the badThey're lined up alphabetically, and M comes before P so Alexander Mercer stands in front of Reginald Peters, and Alex doesn't like him.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Luke Patterson & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Luke/reggie (mentioned), alex/luke (mentioned), alex/reggie (mentioned)
Comments: 78
Kudos: 415





	know me better than anybody

It starts the first day of third grade.

Alex doesn't like him, the boy who stands too close over his shoulder in line to go to recess.

He's got dark hair and a spray of freckles across his nose and he's missing his front teeth and Alex doesn't like him.

They're lined up alphabetically, and M comes before P so Alexander Mercer stands in front of Reginald Peters, and Alex doesn't like him.

But Alex is new in class and Reggie already likes him a whole lot. He stands behind him, and pokes his back, between his shoulderblades.

When Alex glares over his shoulder at him, Reggie gives him a gap-toothed smile.

"I like your shirt," he says with a lisp. Alex wrinkles his nose.

"Thanks," he says shortly, tugging the hem of his Looney Tunes sweatshirt down over the waistband of his jeans.

Reggie frowns. He wants Alex to say that he likes Reggie’s shoes, too, since they also have Bugs Bunny on them. But Alex ignores him and doesn't glance at Reggie's sneakers.

He tries again. "Do you like it here yet?"

Alex snorts, his arms crossed. "You're gonna get me in trouble. Shut _up_."

And Reggie bites his lip, staring at the floor as the teacher finally leads them from the classroom. Tears prick at the corners of his eyes and he sniffles, wiping them away furiously as they make their way outside to the playground.

Because Reggie is always in trouble, and even the new kid already knows it.

Alex glances back at him when he hears the sniff, and he feels bad. He didn't mean to make Reggie cry, he _didn't._

But when his new friend Troy had told him that he was gonna be lined up with the kid in class that was always getting sent to the quiet corner or getting his name written on the chalkboard, Alex decided right then he didn't want anything to do with him.

Because Alex is a Good Kid. His parents tell him so, his teachers have always told him so, and he's never so much as gotten a warning in school.

But now Reggie is crying and he doesn't know what to do. Good Kids don't make other people upset!

He could tell Miss Richards and maybe get in trouble for causing it.

Or he could do what he does when his sister is sad, and make funny faces until someone laughs.

Before he can make a choice, every kid in the class scatters towards the playground. And Alex really _really_ wants to try out the cool monkey bars that his new school has.

But he sees Reggie slump off to the bench under a tree on the far side of the jungle gym, and he knows he needs to make this okay first.

Then he can play on the monkey bars.

That's what his mom would tell him.

Reggie pulls his feet up, sticking his fingers through the honeycomb holes of the bench absently. Bugs Bunny smiles up at him from the sides of his sneakers and he rests his chin on his knees.

He just wanted one friend who didn't think he was bad.

But it was too late, and he had known that the second he'd seen Troy talking to the new kid.

But he had tried anyway, because Alex had seemed nice, with his blonde hair and his purple sweatshirt and his Real Ghostbusters lunchbox.

He should've just kept his mouth shut instead.

That's what his mom would tell him.

"Hey,"

Reggie startles.

Alex is staring at him, his hands in his pockets as he scuffs the toe of his sneaker in the dirt. "Can I sit here?"

Reggie turns away, hides his mouth in his arm. "Why? Won't you _get in trouble_?"

Alex flinches. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, I really really didn't but-"

"But Troy told you I'm the bad kid, and you listened," Reggie says, anger surging through his blood as he faces him again. His freckles disappear under the red flush that paints his cheeks, and Alex takes a step back.

And Reggie sees that he's scared him, and that wasn't what he had wanted, not at _all_.

The fight goes out of him. "Just...just leave me alone, okay?"

And Alex blinks.

Because he knows that when he's upset, he doesn't _want_ to be left alone. And maybe Reggie is different from him but something tells him that that isn't quite the case.

So instead of listening, Alex sits down on the bench next to him.

"I like your shoes," he says. "Sylvester is my favorite, but I like Bugs Bunny, too."

Reggie eyes him warily and wipes his nose on the cuff of his striped shirt. "Thanks."

Alex’s feet don’t quite reach the ground, and he swings them uncertainly, his toes stirring up little clouds of dirt as he watches the other kids playing on the monkey bars. They don’t seem nearly as appealing as they did earlier.

So he sits with Reggie in silence.

But when Miss Richards blows the whistle so they know that recess is over, Reggie doesn’t get off the bench until he does, and when they line up in alphabetical order at the wall to go back inside, Reggie reaches out and grips the back of Alex’s sweatshirt sleeve. He does it lightly, like he’s scared that Alex will yell at him again, but Alex lets him.

When they sit back down in their assigned chairs for math, and Reggie has to go to his special seat closest to Miss Richards’ desk, Troy whispers to him, “Why did you spend all recess with Reggie? He’s so _weird-_ ”

“Shut up.”

Troy jerks back. “What?”

“I said, _shut up_.” His voice rises as he says it. And he doesn’t know why he feels suddenly so protective of Reggie Peters when he’s only known him one day, but Alex Mercer is eight years old and he knows that _none of this is fair._

It isn’t fair that Reggie has to sit in a desk next to the teacher, it isn’t fair that nobody will listen to him when he talks and all they do is tell him to be quiet and it isn’t fair that the other kids feel like they have to keep the new kid away from him because they think he’s Bad and Weird and Alex is so mad he could _spit._

Because as far as he can tell, Reggie hasn’t done anything _wrong._

And suddenly he’s on his feet at his desk, his chair squeaking against the floor as he just keeps telling Troy over and over to be quiet.

Miss Richards writes his name on the board.

And Alex snorts, his arms crossed as he drops down heavily in his seat. He’s still too angry to care that he just got in more trouble than he’s ever been in, even if it’s not a real punishment. Across the room, Reggie stares at him with wide eyes.

When they line up again for music class, Alex holds his hand out behind him. Reggie takes it.

“Now we’re the Bad Kid together, okay?”

Reggie squeezes his fingers and Alex’s heart does a funny flip in his chest. He likes him, this boy who stands too close over his shoulder, with the dark hair and the gaping hole where his teeth should be.

He decides that he likes him a lot.

And that is the beginning.

Reggie doesn’t realize how much he cares that he stands behind Alex in the lines that the teachers insist be alphabetical. It just had always been that way. The sky was blue, the grass was green, and Peters comes after Mercer.

So when stupid Luke Patterson shows up in eighth grade, with his stupid P last name and the stupid A that comes second in it, Reggie might be a little bit annoyed.

Generally speaking, by the time they’re thirteen, the teachers don’t care so much about keeping them in any particular order, but it’s picture day, and Reggie and Alex don’t have that many classes together, and they had been looking forward to talking while waiting for their turn to grin awkwardly in front of the camera. It was like a free pass to hang out when they should have been in class.

Except Luke _freaking_ Patterson is standing between them, and Reggie _hates_ him and his stupid Rob Lowe wannabe haircut. 

And fine, maybe he’s a little bit cranky because he just got his braces tightened yesterday and his teeth are sore but still, Alex is chatting it up with this new kid and his dumb hair.

“Reggie, have you met Luke? He says he plays guitar, like you.”

Reggie decides immediately that he’s quitting guitar.

He’ll go back to piano if it keeps him from having anything in common with this best friend-stealing loser.

But his parents didn’t raise him to be rude, so Reggie gives him a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “Cool, man. How long have you been playing?”

It’s maybe a little bit of a challenge, because Reggie desperately wants to be better than this new kid and the way Alex is looking at him is making him very scared that he’s about to lose his only friend. And yes, he _knows_ that he's being ridiculous but he can't help it.

Alex gives him a weird look, sensing the unusual animosity rolling off of Reggie. And he knows that Reg has been having a rough time at home lately, and he’s been acting up in class again. The last thing he needs is to be starting fist fights with the new guy.

But Luke doesn’t look like he’s noticed, giving Reggie a beaming smile. “Only two years, but I’m getting really good. We should play together sometime, I bet you’re great.”

And that strikes Alex as odd, the way that Luke says it so shyly, looking a little awestruck as he tries to work his way into Reggie’s good graces.

And that's how it starts again.

Luke cuts his hair when he finds out that Reggie thinks it looks stupid, and Reggie lives with that guilt. And Alex finally has someone to help protect his best friend from himself.

The fighting at Reggie's house gets worse, but he gets better. His walls come down again, and Alex can see the kid who just wanted to be his friend all those years ago. He still spends a lot of his nights sleeping on Alex’s floor, but now he crashes on Luke's couch, too.

And it's nice, to see Reggie make the decision to let his anger go.

He's _happy_ again. And Alex breathes a little bit easier knowing that Reggie getting mean hadn't been permanent.

Reggie's braces come off and Luke starts lifting weights and Alex suddenly one day towers over both of them.

They meet Bobby in his family's record store in 1993, playing his guitar when he's supposed to be sweeping the floor for his dad. Luke asks to see it, and plays out half a riff that has Bobby yanking it back immediately.

They end up passing it back and forth between them in some sort of friendly sparring match before Reggie reaches out and grabs the six string, the frets digging into his palm.

And it's been forever since Reggie has played acoustic, Alex knows. He'd picked up the bass and never looked back. But he still plucks out a jaunty little ditty that has both Bobby and Luke laughing.

And it restarts from there.

Reading Crooked Teeth as best he can through Luke’s terrible handwriting, Alex has the answers to _a lot_ of questions.

Luke is staring down at the concrete floor of the studio, his hands shaking.

Alex swallows.

Crooked Teeth is about having a crush.

On your best friend.

And then growing up with them and moving on from it.

And out of all of them, Alex is well aware of _exactly_ how that feels.

“I’m gay.” He blurts out.

Luke startles in his chair, staring at Alex.

“I don’t know what I am,” he confesses.

Alex waves the paper. Luke had clearly been very careful to use zero pronouns in the lyrics, only addressing the subject as _you_ , but the thing is that Alex is fairly perceptive, and he’s known Luke a good long time at this point.

“This is about Reggie. God, I could have written this, this has Reggie all over it.”

Luke blinks at him, realization dawning across his face. “So you-you too?”

“From third grade til like sixth, yeah.” Alex blushes, scrubbing at his eyes. “I think he was my first crush, god help me.”

Luke laughs, a snorting, relieved sound. “How long until you think he catches on?”

“Never. Absolutely never.”

It doesn't restart, not this time. Instead, life just goes on.

Alex comes out and Reggie starts wearing his steel toed boots again, a wordless threat to anybody who whispers behind Alex’s back. Bobby gifts Reggie a leather jacket for Christmas, to match the boots, and tells Alex he’s here for him as he hands him the gold chain necklace that Alex will wear until far past his death.

Luke kisses Alex behind the bleachers and while they agree that it's nice, neither of them feels much more than awkwardness and they leave that whole debacle in the dirt.

And they put Crooked Teeth in every setlist, because Alex knows that Luke is over it and the song is good and Reggie is completely oblivious.

They get the Orpheum gig and eat some bad hot dogs and the tape of their life is supposed to hit STOP but instead presses PAUSE.

And it takes twenty five years and their actual _deaths_ for Reggie to get even a slight clue. It takes Alex by surprise that he’d thought Crooked Teeth was written about _him_ , and he wonders if there isn’t still some of that guarded, jealous boy left somewhere in his friend after all.

It’s Julie that puts the pieces together.

She’s admitted several times that she has a hard time letting go of Trevor’s songs, simply because she did grow up with them, and Luke forgives her for that.

She’s humming Crooked Teeth under her breath, doodling in her notebook that she’s supposed to be using to study her notes from yesterday’s anatomy review, when she pauses.

She sings the lyric again, softly, half breathless.

“Oh my god,” she says, looking up across the studio at Luke. “You had a crush on _Reggie_.”

And Luke blinks at her. “...yeah, and?”

Julie grins. “That is _adorable._ ”

Luke groans. “Don’t start-”

And Reggie, who has been tuning his bass and mostly tuning this out, looks up. “Wait. Oh, _duh,_ -” he puts his hand to his head. “I thought it was about Alex for so long, it didn’t even occur to me. You had a crush on me?”

“We both did, numbnuts,” Alex grumbles from behind his book. Reggie beams as Luke rolls his eyes.

Then Reggie frowns. "Oh _yuck_ , guys I wasn't even pretty back then, what is _wrong_ with you two? Your taste _sucks_."

And Julie is giggling as Luke tries and fails to defend himself against Reggie’s very fair summation of his own crappy attitude at age thirteen, arguing that Luke should have had higher standards. Julie agrees like she had been there, and tells Luke very seriously to love himself, even as her laughter breaks her words into chunked syllables. Alex is hit with the completely nonsensical thought that if they had known her in school, she would have been lined up between him and Reggie, just like Luke.

Mercer, Molina, Patterson, and Peters.

Even their names sound intertwined.

And he smiles to himself because that doesn't make _any_ sense, but he likes the thought anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> idk we got canon last names and aly said "and they'd have been line up buddies" and i said _"oh my god they'd have been line up buddies"_
> 
> a little different from my usual style but hey it's here and it's written what more can i ask for
> 
> oh right, comments, i can ask for comments
> 
>  _cominte?_ spare validation ma'am?


End file.
